The Twelfth Card

remember anything elshe.”
    “He was nearby? How close?”
    “I don’t know. Not close. Couldn’t see. Too much bluh.”
    Sachs nodded. The poor man looked exhausted. His breathing was labored, his eyes much more unfocused than when she’d arrived. She rose. “I’ll let him get some rest.” She asked, “You heard of Terry Dobyns?”
    “No. Ishh he . . . Who ishh?” A grimace crossed the injured officer’s face. “Who is he?
    “Department psychologist.” She glanced at Ron with a smile. “This’ll take the starch out of you for a while. You should talk to him about it. He’s the man. He rules.”
    Ron said, “Don’t need to—”
    “Patrolman?” she said sternly.
    He lifted an eyebrow, winced.
    “It’s an order.”
    “Yes, ma’am. I mean . . . ma’am.”
    Anthony said, “I’ll make sure he does.”
    “You’ll thank . . . Geneva for me? I like that book.”
    “I will.” Sachs slung her bag over her shoulder and started for the door. She just stepped through it when she stopped abruptly, turned back. “Ron?”
    “Wusthat?”
    She returned to his bedside, sat down again.
    “Ron, you said the unsub was near you for a few minutes.”
    “Yuh.”
    “Well, if you couldn’t see him, with the blood in your eyes, how did you know he was there?”
    The young officer frowned. “Oh . . . yeah. There’s shomething I forgot to tell you.”
    *   *   *
    “Our boy’s got a habit, Rhyme.”
    Amelia Sachs was back in the laboratory.
    “What’s that?”
    “He whistles.”
    “For taxis?”
    “Music. Pulaski heard him. After he’d been hit the first time and was lying on the ground the unsub took his weapon and, I’m guessing, spent a few minutes to hook the bullet to the cigarette. While he was doing that, he was whistling. Real softly, Ron said, but he’s sure it was whistling.”
    “No pro’s going to whistle on the job,” Rhyme said.
    “You wouldn’t think. But I heard it too. At thesafe house on Elizabeth Street. I thought it was the radio or something—he was good.”
    “How’s the rookie doing?” Sellitto asked. He hadn’t rubbed his invisible bloodstain recently but he was still edgy.
    “They say he’ll be okay. A month of therapy or so. I told him to see Terry Dobyns. Ron was pretty out of it but his brother was there. He’ll look after him. He’s a uniform too. Identical twin.”
    Rhyme wasn’t surprised. Being on the force often ran in the family. “Cop” could be the name of a human gene.
    But Sellitto shook his head at the news of a sibling. He seemed all the more upset, as if it was his fault that an entire family had been affected by the attack.
    There was no time, though, to deal with the detective’s demons. Rhyme said, “All right. We’ve got some new information. Let’s put it to use.”
    “How?” Cooper asked.
    “The murder of Charlie Tucker’s still the closest lead we have to Mr. One-oh-nine. So, obviously,” the criminalist added, “we call Texas.”
    “Remember the Alamo,” Sachs offered and hit the speaker button on the phone.
    POTTERS’ FIELD SCENE (1868)
    • Tavern in Gallows Heights—located in the Eighties on the Upper West Side, mixed neighborhood in the 1860s.
    • Potters’ Field was possible hangout for Boss Tweed and other corrupt New York politicians.
    • Charles came here July 15, 1868.
    • Burned down following explosion, presumably just after Charles’s visit. To hide his secret?
    • Body in basement, man, presumably killed by Charles Singleton.
      • Shot in forehead by .36 Navy Colt loaded with .39-caliber ball (type of weapon Charles Singleton owned).
      • Gold coins.
      • Man was armed with Derringer.
      • No identification.
      • Had ring with name “Winskinskie” on it.
        • Means “doorman” or “gatekeeper” in Delaware Indian language.
        • Currently searching other meanings.
    EAST HARLEM SCENE (GENEVA’S GREAT-AUNT’S APARTMENT)
    • Used cigarette and 9mm round as explosive device to distract officers. Merit brand, not traceable.
    • Friction ridge prints: None. Glove-prints only.
    • Poisonous gas device:
      • Glass jar, foil, candleholder. Untraceable.
      • Cyanide and sulfuric acid. Neither containing markers. Untraceable.
    • Clear liquid similar to that found on Elizabeth Street.
      • Determined to be Murine.
    • Small flakes of orange paint. Posing as construction or highway worker?
    ELIZABETH STREET SAFE HOUSE SCENE
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